Minnesota Beef Industries is the state’s leader in hot-water pasteurization

By Dan Lemke

Buffalo Lake, Minn. — Bill Gilger doesn’t allow shortcuts. In his business, they can be fatal.

As co-owner and chief financial officer of Minnesota Beef Industries, Gilger says bypassing safety procedures in meat packing can lead to big trouble.

Remember the Hudson Foods scare of August 1997? A record 25 million pounds of ground beef were recalled after an E. coli outbreak was traced to tainted meat. The USDA, which thoroughly inspected Hudson’s Nebraska plant, ultimately concluded the contamination came from slaughterhouses supplying the plant. Hudson Foods lost its business, forced to sell out to rival Tyson Foods.

“Someone took a shortcut,” Gilger says. “Fortunately, the industry went to school on their mistake.”

Minnesota Beef Industries surpassed that learning curve recently to set the standard for Minnesota beef packers. This summer, with help from AURI, the company installed a 9,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art meat cooler as part of a plant expansion and upgrade. It also became the state’s first processor with an in-house sterilization process.

Shower power

After a carcass leaves the processing floor, it’s washed and conveyed into Minnesota Beef’s new hot water pasteurization chamber. Jets pressure-spray 180-degree water onto the carcass for six seconds — long and hot enough to kill nearly all pathogens. Next, cold air and water hit the meat, then the chilled carcass is transported by a track system to the cooler. The pasteurization process, Gilger says, ensures that the meat’s E. coli level will be less than one part per billion.

The new pasteurization system was a significant investment but one Minnesota Beef felt compelled to make. Co-owner Chuck McCarthy says their customers and the industry were largely responsible for the decision to install a system. “We had a choice of spending money on this system and staying in business or not spending the money and being out of business. It wasn’t a government mandate, it was industry that forced it.”

“I never woke up one morning and said, ‘I think I’ll spend a quarter million dollars today,’ ” Gilger adds. “We did it because the big boys like IBP and Excel did. If we’re going to survive we have to keep up with them. We have to demonstrate to customers that we’re serious players.”

A cut above the rest

Minnesota Beef’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. Meat processed at the plant is purchased by big name companies such as McDonald’s, Hillshire Farms and Sara Lee. Products are also sent as far as Mexico, Japan and Poland.

The quality assurance systems at Minnesota Beef have also allowed them to capture a large kosher market. Gilger says they process 25 to 30 thousand pounds of kosher meat a day. Four rabbis at the Buffalo Lake packing plant ensure the slaughter is done according to Jewish tradition.

Gilger says he’s hopeful the investment in a pasteurization and cooling system will pay off in the long run. “I don’t know if this will get us new orders, but we can offer some things other packers may not be able to, because it’s becoming an issue of who’s got the cleanest meat. I think it will be a competitive advantage for us.”

Steve Olson, manager of AURI’s Marshall field office, says the Minnesota Beef project also represents a triumph of collaboration: AURI, the Southwest Minnesota Foundation and Minnesota Technology all combined to assist this rural business.

Minnesota Beef processes an average of about 310 cattle a day but has the capacity to do over 400. They also employ 115 people. Gilger says the new safety systems give Minnesota Beef the opportunity to be one of the top packers in the country. But he admits it is a tough business.